


Picking up the Pieces

by lilyhearted



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zombies, Battle Couple, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 10:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13028910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilyhearted/pseuds/lilyhearted
Summary: Malec zombie AU for alineppenhallow!They've made a life for themselves, after the world fell apart.Contains: Malec being an awesome battle couple but also managing to be domestic as hell.





	Picking up the Pieces

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alineppenhallow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alineppenhallow/gifts).



> Hello! I really hope you enjoy this! I was really excited when I got called in as a pinch hitter and saw that you had a prompt for a zombie AU. I also sort of unintentionally filled the first prompt as well, if domesticity during a zombie apocalypse counts.  
> I had a lot of fun writing this, and am somewhat tempted to write more because there was so much I ended up leaving out.

Hiding behind a shelf in a ransacked grocery store with one of the most annoying people Alec knew was not his idea of a good time. He reached out and slapped a hand over Simon’s mouth because even his breathing managed to be annoying, and the name of the game right now was to be quiet. It took a minute, but then the noise he’d heard came back, the one that had made him pull them both behind the upturned shelf, a shuffling of legs and a thick wet noise, the sound of skin that didn’t quite fit right on bones anymore. It was disturbing how quickly they all could identify that noise now, but out here it was life or death. 

When the whole thing with zombies began, it was like any other day. Well, that wasn’t exactly true, it actually had been kind of a terrible day for Alec. He’d managed to miss the bus to work, got caught in the rain which had soaked through the reference materials he’d needed. By the time he’d gotten to his desk, hanging his soaking jacket over the back of his chair, the rest of the office was gathered around a television screen with horrified expressions. He almost hadn’t bothered to ask what they were watching, looking with dread at the amount of paperwork he had to finish by the end of the day. But Raj had noticed him come in and filled Alec in on the details. 

Zombies. 

Actual, flesh eating zombies. 

He’d laughed. Then he’d frowned. Then he’d gathered his things and promptly left. Because if the world was coming to an end, Alec Lightwood was going to make damn sure that he was with his siblings when that happened. They’d spent the night watching video proof, and the terrifying manifesto of a scientist named Valentine Morgenstern, who decided he would wipe out the weak with a zombie plague.  
Somehow, Alec got the feeling that this whole thing hadn’t exactly gone to plan for Morgenstern. Who had died within the first couple months. His equally psychotic son was still out there, somewhere, but they had more imminent issues to deal with than one kid. 

Namely, the zombie in the store with them. 

Alec breathed out slowly, quietly, closing his eyes to listen more closely to the noises. If it was a whole herd of them, this could get messy. As good as Alec was, and as much as Simon had improved, fighting a whole herd of zombies indoors with just two people was not a great idea if you actually wanted to live. Their best bet, if that was the case, was to get out of the shop as quickly as possible without being detected and run like hell. 

But it only sounded like one, a lone hunter. Signaling for Simon to stay put, Alec very slowly drew a knife from his boot. His bow and quiver were on his back, but getting it might cause enough noise to draw the zombie’s attention. Movies always depicted zombies as comically slow moving, which wasn’t the case. Sure, they limped and dragged themselves long distances, but in close quarters like this, they could be on you before you had a chance. Knife in hand, Alec carefully stood up and pressed his back to a shelf that was still upright, peering around it to try and get a good look at the zombie. 

It had been hard at first, killing zombies. How were you supposed to turn off your mind and forget that they used to be human? But the longer they watched them, after they’d seen them kill, it was harder to see the humanity left in them, if there was any at all. More, they hardly looked human, their flesh sagged, took on a grey pallor, open wounds, eyes entirely white. It was life or death, and the Lightwood siblings had been determined to live. 

Lining up his shot, Alec let the knife fly, and it buried itself firmly into the skull of the zombie, causing it to crumple. Alec could practically see Jace’s proud smirk. He’d been the one to teach Alec that particular trick, insisting that he wouldn’t be able to take care of everything with his bow and hand to hand. Particularly the latter, getting in close to a zombie was never a great idea. 

Alec pulled his dagger out, tugging a rag from his back pocket to wipe the blade before bending to slide it back in his boot. Standing, he made sure that truly was the only zombie before leaning back around the shelves to give the okay to Simon. The gangly boy got to his feet, the few cans they’d managed to collect banging together in Simon’s messenger bag.

Really, Alec shouldn’t have been the one on this mission. When Simon had come in chattering about how he’d seen a few cans of food wedged underneath a few shelves in a grocery store just outside of their perimeter, Alec had been ready to send out one of their patrols to scope it out. But they were short staffed with everything that was going on. At the very least he would have usually sent Jace with, he really should be the one making sure his boyfriend didn’t get himself killed. But Jace was off on another mission. So, Alec was the one left escorting Simon. 

Not that Simon was fully incapable of defending himself. He’d come a long way since he and Clary had first joined up with their, then, small group. But no one was left alone, that was a policy that they’d come up with early. 

“Are we good?” Alec questioned as Simon stepped over debris.

“Yeah, I think I got everything that was left” Simon grinned hoisting his bag and making the cans clunk together again. The grin was a vast difference, Alec remembered how Simon used to shake after they encountered a zombie. 

“Great, we should get moving” Alec tilted his head toward the front door. 

“You could be a little happier, we got some great stuff! And only ran into one zombie. I even found a few batteries for Clary!” Simon grinned, digging into the front pocket of his bag to produce the batteries. 

“I’ll be happy when we’re back in the safe zone and you don’t somehow manage to attract every zombie in the area before then” His eyes searched in all directions as they stepped out onto the street. 

“I’m not _that_ bad. Come on” Simon groaned, following after Alec. 

“Do you remember what happened with the pigeon? Because I do” Alec glared over his shoulder. 

“That was a total accident!” Simon protested, hands flailing a little. 

“An accident that almost got three of us killed” Alec sighed, turning onto another street. 

New York was no longer the city that never sleeps. Alec sometimes had to remind himself that the sidewalks had been crowded, that there was the constant blare of horns, that lights had lit up the sky at all hours. Now wind whistled past tall buildings, and cars were abandoned in the streets. Everything was eerily quiet except for Alec and Simon’s footsteps as they navigated their way back to the safe zone. 

The safe zone was a few blocks of the city that they’d taken over and used as their base as their population grew. It centered around a church they lovingly referred to as The Institute. A long time ago, when they’d just been a small group, the church had been the only place they’d been able to secure. It was almost mind blowing now to know how much they had. That they could protect more people than just their little group. 

“Alec?” Clary’s voice crackled in his ear. 

To this day, Alec still isn’t entirely sure how Clary and Simon managed to rig up their comms system, but they both gained his grudging respect for it. Clary was the one who ran it, and if Alec was being honest, she was brilliant at it. She made sure she always knew where everyone was, organized their small force in the best possible way to keep everyone safe. 

“What’s up Fray?” Alec paused, bringing a hand up to his ear. 

“It’s Magnus and Luke, they’re in trouble” Even through the tinny speaker in his ear, Clary sounded worried. Alec was immediately on alert. 

“Where” Alec demanded tersely, already prepared to sprint in the direction of wherever Magnus was. 

“Just outside the fourth quadrant. I’ve got Maia and Aline coming to meet you at the second. One of them can take Simon back in” Clary’s voice was a little muffled because Alec was already running. He could hear Simon’s huffing behind him, no doubt he’d been looped in on the call as well. 

“How bad?” He asked curtly, ducking down an alley that would bring him to the second quadrant faster. 

“At least twenty to thirty last I heard. They were ambushed” Clary explained over the comms, “Luke’s been bitten.”

“Shit.” Alec hissed. That meant Magnus was practically on his own. And they were against time. 

Maia and Aline were around the next corner, weapons already out. Alec watched as Aline caught Maia’s hand, whispering something to her seriously, ‘be safe’ if Alec had to guess. Then they stepped apart, Aline gesturing for Simon to follow her and Maia falling into step with Alec. It was the easiest way to make sure they got the supplies back to base but also make sure that Magnus and Luke got adequate backup. Maia had her bat strapped to her back, ready to be drawn. Alec knew from experience that she was deadly with it, and if Luke was in trouble, Maia was going to be swinging hard. 

Their survival population was really an amalgamation of three separate groups. The first being those that had joined up with the Lightwood siblings along the way. They’d been the first ones to take over the church, and made their own name for themselves fighting zombies. Shadowhunters, they’d started to be called, not afraid to take the battle into the night. 

The second group had come with Luke. He’d had a large group of people, holing up in a Chinese restaurant. But the place had gotten overrun with zombies, and they’d been running out of supplies. Luke also happened to be Clary’s stepfather, and had been searching for her. So really, it made sense for Alec to make an offer to join forces. 

The third group had been led by Magnus Bane. They’d been a group of drifters, never staying in one place for too long, searching out supplies and survivors. By the time they’d run into Magnus, they’d managed to secure a block of city. It took a lot of negotiating, but Magnus finally agreed to join them. The three of them led jointly and it worked for them. 

Of course, if two of them managed to get themselves killed, that wouldn’t exactly be good from a leadership standpoint. 

Alec was huffing by the time they got to where Clary’s tinny directions in his ear were leading them. His bow was already off his back, arrow knocked. It wasn’t hard to see where they were, given the ravenous hoard of zombies. But even if Alec hadn’t been breathing hard from running, his breath would have been stolen by the sight in the center of the fray. Just like it had been the first time he’d met Magnus Bane. 

There was something about the way he held the metal staff in his hands, swung gracefully around his body so quickly that the movements started to blur. Elegant muscles bunched and pulled in his shoulders as his staff swung out and connected with a zombie’s skull, before drawing it back and swinging it around to combat another that was getting all too close. The ends of his long coat lifted with the quick movements as Magnus successfully held back every zombie that was coming toward him and presumably a prone Luke. He was beautiful. Only Magnus could make killing zombies look like an art. 

One lurched a little too close to Magnus, and that snapped Alec out of his second of appreciation long enough to loose an arrow that pierced through the Zombie’s skull. The movement caused Magnus to look up and notice him, a relieved smile crossing his face even as he swung his metal staff around to knock another zombie back. 

Giving a swift nod to Maia, Alec knocked another arrow and the two of them started fighting their way toward Magnus and Luke. With the two of them, it didn’t take long to get to Magnus. Maia bent down to check on Luke while Magnus and Alec stood back to back, keeping the rest of the zombies off them. 

It had been a while since he’d been able to fight with Magnus like this, they were both so busy. But falling back into it always felt so natural, the two of them together were an unstoppable force. It wasn’t perfect, when Alec fought with Jace their styles were so similar and they’d fought together for so long that they were melody and harmony at times, perfectly in synch. If Alec was to describe how he fought with Magnus similarly, it would be melody and counter-melody. Two equally powerful forces that aren’t always on the same wavelength, but when they are? It’s magic. 

“You’re late to the party Alexander” Magnus’s voice teased warmly in his ear. 

“Give me a break, I was all the way over past eight with Simon” Alec grunted as he released another arrow. 

“How was scouting with Sherwin?” Magnus spun past him to bring his staff down. 

“We got a few things, more batteries for Clary” Alec kicked a zombie back. 

“Biscuit will be delighted, I’m sure” Magnus back pressed fully into Alec, and Alec could feel how the sweat had drenched the back of his jacket. He’d been fighting on his own for a while, with Luke down. Again, Alec couldn’t help but marvel. 

“How long do we have with Luke?” Alec asked another arrow pierced through a skull. 

“It’s fresh, not more than twenty minutes ago. We’ve got time, but the sooner the better” Magnus answered more seriously, pushing off Alec to get more force behind a swing. 

“How did it go then?” Alec’s arrow got another zombie that was going for Luke and Maia. 

“Well, once they realized that we weren’t trying to kill them, I think they were rather receptive” Magnus said through heavy breaths. 

Their conversation paused as they finished off what was left of the hoard. Maia finished the last one off with a particularly hard swing. 

Alec wanted to pause then, wanted to pull Magnus into his arms after days of not seeing him, take a quiet moment to tell him how much he’d missed him. Because he had. Izzy and Clary liked to tease him that he was twice as irritable whenever Magnus was away, and he’d noticed that some of the younger recruits stayed well out of his path. 

Unfortunately, their lives lacked small quiet moments. There was always something urgent that needed doing. Any intimate moments they had to seek out later. At the moment, getting Luke back was the most pressing matter. Maia had pressed a rag to what Alec presumed was a bite on Luke’s bicep. Between Maia and Alec, they managed to get Luke standing and propped between them. Magnus had made a move to protest, stepping in like he was going to take some of Luke’s weight, but Alec had shaken his head, looking meaningfully back at the pile of rotting flesh behind them. 

The look Magnus gave him clearly said something along the lines of ‘I know what I’m capable of Alexander’, but he gave in anyway, instead leaning over to pick up Luke’s gun and tucking it into his waistband. Guns weren’t common weapons, at least not around here. Ammo wasn’t exactly plentiful, so it was easier if they picked weapons that didn’t require it. What they did find, they gave to Luke. A former NYPD detective, he was definitely the best shot out of all of them. It wasn’t the only weapon Luke carried, but it was the most intimidating. 

Luke wasn’t doing well, a zombie’s bite worked quickly. After the initial pain from the bite, it felt like fire spreading through your veins. The inflicted would break out into a fever and become increasingly sweaty as their body tried to fight off the infection. The human body, depending on the person’s body mass and general fitness could hold it off for a couple hours at most. After that came the really horrifying stuff, where the plague started to eat away at you. But hopefully, they weren’t going to get to that stage today.

Maryse was the one who met them at the doors to The Institute, worry lining her face. Her hands fluttered uselessly above Luke, as if wanting to relieve whatever pain that he was going through and knowing that she couldn’t. Alec had suspected there was something going on between them for a while. Luke had lost Jocelyn back when they’d still been a separate survival group, which Clary had been devastated about, but he and Maryse had been together a lot recently. As far as Alec was concerned, it was a good thing, they both needed to heal. 

Not that Robert Lightwood was dead, but their parents had been separated even before the zombie apocalypse decided to come crashing in. Which was why Robert and Max weren’t here with them. They’d ended up in a survivor’s camp further upstate, called Idris. While camps like theirs took in as many survivors as they feasibly could, others, like Idris, chose to completely close themselves off to the world. It was going to be a while before they could see Max again.

Izzy’s heeled boots clicked on the floor as she came around the corner, long white medical coat brushing at her knees. Behind her, Clary and Raphael wheeled one of the beds from the medical wing. 

“How’s he doing?” Izzy directed the question at Magnus as Alec and Maia hoisted Luke up onto the bed. 

“As good as can be expected. Is everything set up?” Magnus took control of the situation, stepping closer to Izzy. 

“We’re ready to go” Izzy gave Magnus a tight nod. The two of them took hold of the rails on either side of the bed, pushing it back toward the medical wing quickly.

The rest of them lingered in the main hall, knowing that Luke was going into the best possible hands. Alec caught Raphael reaching up to rub at the scarred skin around his neck, no doubt remembering his own brush with death. 

It had been the combined efforts of Izzy and Magnus that had finally produced a cure for the bite. Both of them had been working in labs before all this began and putting both of their brilliant brains together produced something that could change everything. The cure only worked within the first few hours of someone being bitten, before the disease started eating away at the body, but it meant that a bite wasn’t an instant death sentence. Raphael had been the first one the cure worked on, Magnus had hovered nervously over him until his fever had finally receded. 

“Did they say how the meeting went?” Maryse’ voice broke the silence. 

“We didn’t exactly have a lot of time to talk” Alec huffed, arms crossing over his chest, “But Magnus thought they seemed receptive” He added. 

“I would hope they are receptive” Maryse frowned. There were still worry lines between her brows, “This is a cure we’re talking about.”

“Some people have a hard time believing that” Alec reminded, they’d had a few encounters with people who just hadn’t believed them. In most zombie movies, the whole drive of the movie was to find a cure, and when they finally achieve that, the movie ends. Like from that point everything is just quickly going to get better, the world is saved. Not taking into account that there’s probably hundreds of thousands of survivor camps all over the world that have no way to communicate. So, it was a slow process of visiting each camp. That was where Magnus and Luke had been, and Jace was off at a different camp with Catarina. 

“Well they should” Maryse said firmly, more blunt and short tempered than Alec had seen in a while. 

Taking a few short steps to close the distance between them, Alec reached out to take a hold of her hand. “He’s going to be fine Mom, Izzy and Magnus are going to take care of him” He murmured. 

Tension eased out of Maryse’s shoulders, and she clutched Alec’s hand like a lifeline. “I know.” She said simply, and the two of them fell into silence.  
The rest of the institute ebbed and flowed around them, their world didn’t stop because one person had been bitten. 

Izzy liked to tease Alec that the zombie apocalypse suited him more than the boring corporate life he’d been living before, but the same could be said about her or Jace. While there hadn’t particularly been anything wrong with their lives before the zombies, though Izzy always like to point out how repressed Alec was, each of them had really stepped into their element after. Jace stepped up as a tactician and fighter, Alec as a leader, and Izzy got the chance to save the world with science. They were _needed_ here. None of them would ever say that they were grateful for the zombie apocalypse, not when they knew how many people had lost their live, but they acknowledged that they’d all realized potential that they didn’t know they’d had. 

About an hour after they’d disappeared into the medical wing, both Izzy and Magnus made their way over to them. 

“Hey” Alec murmured and wrapped his arms around his exhausted boyfriend, tilting his chin up so he could press a kiss to his head. Magnus only sighed softly, relaxing into Alec’s arms. It had been a long day for him, the sun was already glinting orange off the windows outside. 

Izzy had moved over to Maryse, who had tensed up again in anticipation of bad news. Maryse always prepared for the worst. But Izzy smiled gently and wrapped her arms around their mother. “Luke’s fine, he’s resting. He’ll probably sleep for a few hours while his body burns off the rest of the infection” Izzy explained. “You can go in and see him if you want.”

Maryse nodded swiftly, her hand stroking gently down her daughter’s arm as she stepped past her to head for Luke’s room. 

Izzy then turned to Alec and Magnus, a soft smile taking over her face. She looked beautiful and tired, sleeves rolled up and her hands on her hips, her dark hair piled on top of her head. 

“You two should go home for the night” She spoke softly, like she was afraid to break the moment. 

Both of them made vague noises of protest, though Alec’s was definitely a little louder. He still had reports to get done, not to mention trying to sort out a million other things that came with running this place. With both Magnus and Luke gone, Alec was the one left running things. Maryse, Izzy and Clary had been a big help, but ultimately it was Alec sitting for long hours in his makeshift office, signing documents and looking over proposed plans. 

“Izzy’s right, you two deserve the night off” Clary’s voice broke in as the redhead herself came down the stairs. She immediately leaned up to press a kiss to Izzy’s cheek, reaching down to tug one of Izzy’s hands into hers. 

“Listening in on the comms again, biscuit?” Magnus asked, amusement clear in his voice. 

“When is she not?” Alec scoffed, but couldn’t deny that his own voice sounded fond. Clary and Alec had come a long way from the days when they used to bicker all the time. It helped that Clary seemed to make Izzy ridiculously happy. “But I have a lot of work to get done, I can’t exactly go home yet.”

“It’s nothing that can’t be done tomorrow, everyone will understand. We know how to reach you if we need you” Clary pointed out. 

“You need to rest big brother, you’ve been pushing yourself with Luke and Magnus gone” Isabelle added, which then had one of Magnus’ perfect eyebrows raising in Alec’s direction. 

Under the gaze of all three of them, Alec folded pretty quickly. “Fine, but you call me the second something comes up.” He directs this at Clary. 

“Got it. Now go.” Clary grins, making a shooing motion with her hand. 

Magnus was the one that pulled away and took Alec’s hand, pulling him toward the doors and then down the front steps of the institute. Golden light was still flooding between the buildings, lighting them both as they strolled down the street toward their apartment. Alec couldn’t help but admire the way it brushed across Magnus cheekbones, highlighting his skin perfectly. There was a tenseness around his jaw, a slight furrow to Magnus’ brows that said something was on his mind, which really wasn’t surprising after today. Alec would be more surprised and concerned if Magnus was just brushing everything off. They’d pushed each other away before, it had never worked out well for either of them. But, it could also wait until they were back to the apartment. 

Staring at his boyfriend was interrupted when a ball crashed unexpectedly into his shins. For a moment Alec just paused, like his brain hadn’t exactly computed what just happened. It was clear from the open amusement on Magnus’ face that he knew exactly what just happened, both physically, and in Alec’s brain. It was probably only a second at most before Alec was leaning down to scoop up the ball and toss it back to the waiting children. But a very familiar girl with twin braids was already determinedly making her way over to them. 

Madzie didn’t even hesitate before she slipped her hand into Alec’s free one, looking up at him with big brown eyes. She tugged at Alec’s hand and gestured to the game they were playing. Alec crouched low, offering her a bright smile. 

“Magnus and I have had kind of a long day” Alec explained, “How about I come by tomorrow after school is over?” He offered.

The small girl contemplated it for a moment, frown pulling at her little lips, but then she was nodding swiftly, “Okay.” 

“It’s a deal. Maybe I’ll get Magnus to come play too” Alec stood back up as Madzie dropped his hand and ran back to join the other kids. When he turned back to Magnus, there was an unmistakably fond smile on his face. 

“What?” Alec asked, capturing Magnus hand. 

“You’re good with her.” Magnus commented, lacing their fingers together. 

“I’m not doing anything special, she just…got attached to me I guess” Alec shrugged. 

“Well you were her knight in shining armor, and mine for that matter” Magnus brings their clasped hands to his lips, kissing along where they were joined.  
They lapsed into silence for a moment, both of them listening to the sounds of children playing in the streets, the faint noises of a patrol passing by. 

“Did you ever think that we’d have this?” Alec asks quietly eyes off on the distant horizon. 

“What do you mean by 'this'?”

“This, everything. That we can have kids playing in the street again, that we can walk down the street like this, without worrying about an attack? That things could be…I don’t know…as close to normal as they are?” Alec’s free hand flailed at the street around him trying to articulate his point.

“Before I met you, I didn’t. But when I saw what you and Luke had done here, I knew it was possible” Magnus smiled. 

“We couldn’t have done it without you” Alec murmured, squeezing Magnus’ hand.

“You would have, but it would have been a lot harder without me” Magnus teases, turning and pushing the door open to their apartment building. 

Originally, everyone had lived in The Institute, taking rooms in the old church. When Luke’s group had joined them, they rapidly realized that they didn’t have enough space to house everyone. As they gained more people, it made sense to utilize the buildings they cleared and secured. So, they took over apartments, swapped furniture, made their own homes. Usually only the first few floors of each building, since elevators weren’t really an option. There wasn’t electricity, or water, but they had somewhere to sleep and keep their stuff. 

Until Magnus had asked Alec to move in with him, Alec had still been living at The Institute. Now he couldn’t imagine coming home to anywhere else. The apartment was _them_ , a perfect mix of Alec’s comfortable practicality and Magnus’ more elegant and colorful stylings. Sometimes it was enough to make Alec forget that they were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. There were days when Alec was just sprawled out on the couch, trying to read but instead watching Magnus carefully tailoring a jacket, that he could pretend they were just a normal couple with a day off from their respective jobs. 

There was little talking as the two of them reached their apartment door and stepped inside. Then it was just gentle hands as they divested each other of their gear and clothes. Magnus hands pulled and quickly relieved Alec of his quiver of arrows and bow, setting both beside the door. Alec spread under the lapels of Magnus’ jacket and slid up his chest until he could push the fabric off his shoulders and down his arms. Magnus did the same with Alec’s leather jacket, tossing it to the side. Alec kneeled down so he could unlace Magnus boots, a hand curling around his calf to help him slide his feet out of the leather. He kicked off his own boots before taking Magnus’ hand and leading him toward the bedroom.

All of this could be sexual, but both of them were exhausted, and treated each other with careful reverence. Eating should probably be a priority, but they could deal with that after they’d had a chance to be home and in each other’s arms. 

Their shirts and pants were discarded next, hands sliding over abs and chests as shirts were tugged off, and sweeping over thighs as pants were left to pool at their ankles. Then they were under the covers, curled close together, arms wrapped around one another. 

“I missed you” Alec murmured into the space between them, leaning forward to just brush his lips over Magnus’.

“I missed you too” Magnus’ long elegant fingers trace patterns along Alec’s spine. 

They stay quiet for a moment, just taking in each other’s presence. They’d had more time apart recently, with Magnus often traveling to work on spreading the cure. As much as Alec hated any time they spent apart, it was hard not to be proud of his boyfriend. He was making a difference, he was saving the world along with Izzy. Besides, even if they were apart, there would always be moments like this after, where it was just the two of them. 

“What were you thinking about earlier?” Alec asked, flattening his palm on Magnus’ back and sliding it up to rest between his shoulder blades. 

“Today reminded me a lot of…” Magnus trailed off breath hitching. 

“Ragnor” Alec filled in gently, bending so that his forehead touched Magnus. 

He felt more than saw Magnus head dip in a nod, “We weren’t paying close enough attention and didn’t see them coming”. 

“It wasn’t your fault, neither of them were your fault” Alec murmured low, his hand coming up so he could brush his thumb along Magnus’ cheekbone. 

“I know. I know that. But I can’t help but think that there was something we could have done differently” Magnus sighed, his fingers tensing on Alec’s back. 

“You can’t think like that. You did everything you could to save Ragnor, and you _did_ save Luke” Alec assured. 

“If you hadn’t shown up when you did…” Magnus leaned further into Alec. 

“If I hadn’t shown up you would have found some way to get the two of you out of there. When we got there, you were single handedly fighting them off and keeping you and Luke safe. You are one of the most brilliant, resourceful, strongest people I’ve ever met. I’m always going to show up when you need me, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if you saved yourself by the time I got there” Alec spoke quietly, tilting his head so he could press his lips to Magnus’ forehead. 

“Thank you, Alexander” Magnus breathed out. This was a discussion they’d had before, a worry that they’d rehashed from both sides. Sometimes they both just needed to be reminded that they were doing everything they possibly could, and that even if they didn’t believe in themselves, the other would do it for them. 

“It’s just the truth. I’m lucky every day that someone as amazing as you decided I was worth it” Alec smiled against Magnus’ skin.

“You say that like you aren’t also amazing, or do you need me to remind you?” Magnus was smiling too now; his fingers had resumed their thoughtless patterns on Alec’s back. 

“Mmm I could stand for a reminder”

“Now you’re just fishing for compliments” Magnus pushed at Alec’s shoulder until he was sprawled on his back and Magnus rolled on top of him. “But you, Alexander Lightwood, are a brilliant leader who managed to protect and organize thousands of people. You came up with the idea of creating safe zone here and made it possible through hard work and diplomacy. You also have a great ass” Magnus tone turned teasing as he leans down to press their lips more firmly together.

It was moments like these that made Alec believe. Sure, there were moments outside of this bedroom that showed Alec the good in what they were doing, plenty of him. But laying here, with his boyfriend, making each other smile, that was what kept him going. That they could be safe, enjoy this moment, that Alec was so in love with Magnus Bane. Love wasn’t something that Alec had ever imagined for himself, so that he’d found it even after the world went to pieces proved that not everything could get worse. 

Their lives weren’t easy, they fought hard for the safety that they had, for their semblance of normalcy. Every day was hard work and a struggle to make sure that they could continue to survive. Some days were harder than others, sometimes they lost people, sometimes there were huge setbacks that made them want to throw in the towel. But Alec knew, that no matter what happened, even if the world fell apart even further than it already had, as long as he had Magnus with him he could keep moving forward.


End file.
